If the Church Were Christian audiobook

I loved this book! The author has some significantly different beliefs than my own, yet I came away with a boatload of ideas for improving my spiritual life. Such a good reminder to go back to the primary source, the words and actions of Jesus himself, as we practice Christianity.My favorite passage is in the last chapter, where Gulley describes the lives of Ben and Dorotha, an elderly couple who “…lived on one Social Security check and gave the other away. They raised chickens so they could distribute eggs. They had extensive gardens and shared their produce. They opened their home to guests and persons in need. They embodied, in every way, the principle of mutual care and responsibility.” He goes on to say that many people show kindness and compassion, but it is usually sporadic and doesn’t require much sacrifice. Ben and Dorotha, on the other hand, “…seemed intentional about their manner of living and its implications for the wider world. Consequently, they lived far beneath their means and put their assets to good use for others…”If I have any criticism, it is this: there are almost too many anecdotes. It seems as if every paragraph is a new story of some church member, church leader, or entire congregation that perfectly embodies the principle he is putting forth. I found myself thinking, wow, this guy knows a ton of people! Regardless, any book that inspires me to go out and just do better gets five stars.

I agree with everthing Philip Gulley says in this critique of "church" - by which he means pretty much every Christian denomination in America (he is a Quaker). And if you wonder how he could lump all the Christian denominations together, just ask yourself if you think the Sanctuary Carpet-Choosing Committee meeting looks or sounds very different no matter which denomination you're in.And that's what Gulley is really talking about here - not in-depth theology (although he does touch on big theological themes and how they affect congregations) but in the church's culture. Specifically, he's aiming to shine a light on our unconscious acceptance of certain things in church culture (why do we get so uncomfortable when people ask questions about our creeds, when Jesus didn't even lay out a creed? why do we so seldom call people in our congregations on their behavior when they're being rude and even downright disfunctional?) to get people to start thinking about whether our *customs* are really meant to be part of our *religion*.I'm not sure that this is the best approach to reach people who don't already agree with what he's saying, and you can see that in some of the scathing reviews on Amazon (which focus mostly on his personal religious beliefs and the reader's opinion of them). I may be being too cynical, but I think it's more likely to convince some spiritural-but-not-religious people that Christians might not all be narrow-minded bigots than it is to convince conservative Christians that they should think Gulley's way.

I have read Phillip Gulley's other theology books, but this one is probably my favorite. His perspective on how the church has lost its way resonates with my own faith struggles. I have been battlings a deep sense of disillusionment for years now, and when I read a book like this I realize I am not alone. Gulley gives the reader permission to question the churches' deeply rooted traditions, and reminds us that grace should triumph fear. If you consider yourself "open-minded", this book will challenge your definition of that term. I found myself questioning several doctrines I've believed my whole life. Most importantly, I have a refreshed view of who Jesus is, and I am inspired to live a life that radiates his mercy and grace. As I read each chapter, I kept pausing and reading sections out loud to my husband. As the book drew to a close, I decided I would invite friends on Facebook to join me in a book study. Dialoguing and discussing the concepts presented in this book will help us all evolve and grow spiritually. If you are interested in joining the discussion group, we will meet on August 27th @ 7:00 in Denton. More info. can be found on Facebook!

Reviewed for THC ReviewsI’ve had If the Church Were Christian on my TBR list for a while now, so when it was coincidentally chosen as our church book club pick this month, I eagerly dove into reading it. Some of the things Rev. Gulley had to say mirrored things that I’ve read in other progressive Christian books, and some were more unique to his personal perspective. I have to give him credit for being a great storyteller who sucked me right into the book. He also has a talent for boiling issues down to a very understandable narrative, which made for an easy read. He makes several valuable points, with which I agreed and which I think the church as a whole should take to heart and work on in a concerted effort to change the direction we’ve been going for years now. However, there were a few points with which I disagreed or at the very least, wasn’t entirely persuaded to the author’s way of thinking. I believe those things could be taken in a couple of different ways. Either it was a weakness of the book or these aspects simply weren’t the focus of the book, so he didn’t want to get into the weeds trying to explain more fully. In any case, it kept If the Church Were Christian from earning keeper status from me, but at the same time, I did enjoy Rev. Gullley’s writing style and overall appreciated the book.I’ll start first with the downsides I found. The first chapter, “If the Church Were Christian… Jesus Would Be a Model for Living Rather Than an Object of Worship” got the book off to a slightly shaky beginning for me. While I do believe that more emphasis should be placed on following Jesus’s teachings – more practicing of the principles he taught and less orthodoxy – I don’t necessarily believe that precludes us from worshiping him. This is where the author and I differ fairly significantly. Rev. Gulley does not believe in the deity of Christ – and I respect his opinion – but I do. For me, it’s pretty much one of the basic building blocks of my faith. Without that, everything kind of falls apart for me, but I understand that Rev. Gulley, through his research and study of the Bible, has come to a different conclusion. However, for me this feels a little too much like throwing the baby out with the bathwater, or a false dichotomy, if you will. There were a few other places in the book where I felt this same false dichotomy came into play, but the first chapter is where it was most glaring to me. The author mentions that there were political reasons for the deification of Jesus, but he doesn't really elaborate much on what those reasons were. This is one of those weak spots I mentioned. I would have been interested in reading more about this, but perhaps it’s a subject that’s covered in more depth in one of his other books. For right now, though, I'm not prepared to toss out my belief in Jesus’s deity without a great deal further examination, even if it does defy logic (as the author states), because in my mind, believing in something greater than yourself or in things that may not entirely make sense to our human minds is all part of what faith means.Now that I’ve said my piece about that topic, I can honestly say that I didn’t have any further major disagreement with Rev. Gulley. Most of the remainder of the book – which of course, was the bulk of it – made a great deal of sense to me. I agree wholeheartedly that the church should focus more on healing rather than condemning brokenness and value reconciliation over judgment. After all, this is what Jesus did regularly in his ministry. Gracious behavior over right beliefs is another area that the church is not particularly good at, and I don’t really know why. Maybe it’s just human nature to want to be right about things, but if we were being more gracious, perhaps there wouldn’t be a need for nearly 40,000 Christian church denominations, many of which I’m sure formed as a result of hardheaded conviction that there was only one right way to believe, a notion that I reject. I also wish the church was significantly better at allowing its members to question, but alas that hasn’t really been the case in my own experience. In fact, that’s a large part of what attracted me to the church I currently attend. I’ve had many question throughout my spiritual journey and until I started going to the church I’m at, I never felt comfortable voicing those doubts and queries for fear of being criticized for not having enough faith or allowing Satan to poison my mind. Also, until attending my current church, I didn’t feel like there was enough focus on helping those in need. It was more of an occasional thing that was done rather than a way of church living.While I appreciated all of the chapters that covered these topics, the two that stood out to me the most and ended up being my favorites were eight and nine. Chapter 8 is “Peace Would Be More Important Than Power.” The active seeking after political power is what nearly drove me away from the church altogether. Jesus never sought political power, so I simply couldn’t get on board with this type of mindset. Then Chapter 9 is “It Would Care More About Love and Less About Sex.” In recent years, I’ve grown completely weary of the drumbeat of purity culture. I’ve read far too many stories and seen too many lives ruined by the church’s inability to accept human sexuality for what it is. IMHO, God made us sexual beings for a reason and to deny that is to deny an inherent part of us and to say that God made a mistake. I do believe in a certain sexual ethic but absolute purity and the wholesale rejection of the LGBTQ+ community for simply being who God made them to be has gone too far in my estimation.So that’s my take on many of the topics covered in If the Church Were Christian, all of which are just one humble reviewer’s opinion. I did enjoy the book overall, even if some of the things discussed were a bit repetitive when compared against other similar books, and in spite of disagreeing with the author on one major point. As I mentioned before, though, where it stands out is in Rev. Gulley’s ability to tell stories. He successfully demonstrated most of his points quite well through the medium of storytelling, relating both good and bad sides to each issue with real-life examples from his own experiences, making the book very accessible. For that reason alone, I can heartily recommend it to anyone who is seeking a different path in these religiously contentious times, even if it wasn’t a perfect read for me. It was my first book by Philip Gulley, but it has also made me look forward to trying some of his other works, particularly his fictional stories, which I have a strong feeling will be well-written and enjoyable.

This book is phenomenal. Easy to digest and quite profound. The chapter titles alone are worth the price of the book. The chapters are:If the church were Christian, Jesus would be a model for living, not an object of worship.If the church were Christian, affirming our potential would be more important than condemning our brokenness.If the church were Christian, reconciliation would be valued over judgment.If the church were Christian, gracious behavior would be more important than right belief.If the church were Christian, inviting questions would be more important than supplying answers.If the church were Christian, encouraging personal exploration would be more important than communal uniformity.If the church were Christian, meeting needs would be more important than maintaining institutions.If the church were Christian, peace would be more important than power.If the church were Christian, it would care more about love and less about sex.If the church were Christian, this life would be more important than the afterlife

This is one provocative little book. Just finished it and had the thought that I better dive into Rob Bell's controversial book "Love Wins" and now I see in the description on GoodReads that Gulley's books will appeal to Rob Bell fans.Gully is a Quaker pastor who normally writes funny, inspirational books ala Garrison Keillor (Lake Wobegon Days). This is a seriously different format and content. Gulley is good at using simple, story-like examples to make his point, but it is his points that will rile some readers. He admits he regularly draws fire from various religious groups.If you have gotten tired of church in-fighting, poor Christian behaviors, rules or beliefs that don't seem to fit with today's needs, and more, consider reading this. It is both a breath of fresh air and contemplative at the same time.

A book comes along once in a while that really speaks to my heart. This was such a book and Philip Gulley read my heart, mind and soul when he wrote it. If the Church Were Christian posits ten changes that would occur if mainstream churches acted on the message and model of Christ rather than continue to twist and untwist the same rope that organized religion has become. If the Church were really Christian, Jesus would be a model for living rather than an object of worship. We get so hung up on mythic details, magical doctrine and irrational dogma we miss the point: it doesn't matter if Jesus was God, what ever that even means; it matters that we model our lives after his: giving to the poor, the sick, the widow, the orphan and the disenfranchised. If the Church were Christian: affirming our potential would be more important than condemning our brokenness, reconciliation would be valued over judgement, gracious behavior would be more important than "right" belief, inviting questions would be valued more than supplying answers, encouraging personal exploration would be more important than communal uniformity, meeting needs would be more important than maintaining institutions, peace would be more important than power, the Church would care more about love and less about sex, and this life would be more important than the afterlife. I see the glimmer of this new theology beginning in the words of Desmond Tutu, Pope Francis, John Shelby Spong, Fr. Richard Rohr and at my home church Manassas Prebyterian. In my opinion it is the only way that Christianity can continue to make a meaningful and vital contribution to the 21st century. The old theology of literalizing myth, magical thinking, authoritarian dogma and judging doctrine will give way to a new theology of tolerance, grace, mercy, loving acceptance, and peace...or Christianity simply will become irrelevant and disappear from lack of interest.

If the church were Christian…- Jesus would be a model for living rather than an object of worship- Affirming our potential would be more important than condemning our brokenness- Reconciliation would be valued over judgement- Gracious behaviour would be more important than right belief (“Mirroring the compassion of Jesus would be more important than echoing the orthodoxy that has built up around him”)- Inviting questions would be valued more than supplying answers- Encouraging personal exploration would be more important than communal uniformity- Meeting needs would be more important than maintaining institutions- Peace would be more important than power- It would care more about love and less about sex- This life would be more important than the afterlifePotent Quotables:Many in the contemporary church assume Jesus’s identity and nature were immediately apparent, universally agreed upon, and clearly stated, but such is not the case. The issue of Jesus’s nature absorbed much of the church’s attention for nearly 300 years.The Christian gospel ought not be that Jesus was God and we can find life in his death. Our good news is that we can find life in his example: accepting the excluded, healing the sick, strengthening the weak, loving the despised, and challenging the powerful to use their influence redemptively. These objectives do not require divinity but commitment, compassion, and courage. Jesus accomplished what he did not because of some supernatural power unavailable to the rest of us; he accomplished what he did because of his steadfast dedication to the priorities of God.A good number of Bible verses recommend polygamy, an arrangement most people don’t have in mind when they speak in hallowed tones about the “biblical” view of marriage. We tend to root around in scripture until we find a verse that supports our preference, then crown our view the “biblical” one, even when other verses contradict it.Any God who would condemn billions of people to hell because the first couple sampled a bite of fruit seems at the very least eccentric and at worst despotic.When the goal of religion is appeasement, fear escalates, judgment increases, reason and mercy fall by the way, and all manner of absurd solutions arise to placate God. In traditional Christian theology, the solution to God’s theoretical wrath was to satisfy it with the gruesome, cruel death of Jesus, which somehow mollified God, allowing God to forgive and bless us.Jesus never, not once, went to the mat for doctrine.I came to see how the church had used afterlife theology as a bludgeon, wielding it with impunity to bless some and curse others. Always the emphasis was on control: controlling whom God might or might not save, controlling the energies and gifts of others, even controlling what could and could not be thought and taught.I decided not to invest any effort in saving people’s souls from a hell I didn’t believe in. Rather, I would work to expand my understanding of God, deepen my commitment to grace, and uplift the human condition.

I read this book as well as his more recent one, Unlearning God, and enjoyed them both. The author is a Quaker pastor and has some of the same issues with church doctrine that I do. I was glad to find someone that shares my views and has not given up on the church and organized religion. His writing style is easy to read, with many practical anecdotes of situations and people he’s encountered in his roles as pastor and lecturer. He applies common sense rather than being dogmatic and strictly adhering to “rules” that are out-dated and no longer make sense. Now I have to read more about the Quaker faith that gives him such wide latitude in his spiritual journey - esp given his role as pastor.

What a fascinating little book.Gulley talks throughout the book about what the church would look like if they followed the example of Jesus rather than the words of what the church has become.I love his take on this and believe that the world would truly be a better place if it followed his example.

Everyone should read this one!

Both scathing, but both authored by pastors who love the church despite its weaknesses. I, too, love the church, but find it disappoints me....We could be so much more but for our complacency and off-putting piousness, the very things Jesus stared down in his Jewish faith.